Many wheelend end assembly configurations are used for both on and off highway applications. For off-highway applications, such as forestry vehicles, planetary gear sets at each wheelend end are often used to multiply the torque available. The planetary gear sets are typically packaged within a spindle or are arranged external to the spindle at the end of the wheelend end. Configurations with externally packaged planetary gear sets have constrained the size of the wheels that may be used. That is, a large wheel must be used to fit over the diameter of the planetary gear set at the end of the wheelend end. From another perspective, the planetary gear set diameter is limited by the smallest predicted wheel. Furthermore, existing configurations cannot easily adapt different brakes including drum, dry-disc, shaft-speed wet disc and wheel-speed wet disc types. 
The bearing arrangements of prior art wheelend ends have been undesirable because the wheel hub mounting flange to which the wheels are attached has been located at an axial distance from the bearings requiring larger bearings than would otherwise be necessary. The bearings are located internal to the spindle to support the output shaft. Since the output shaft axis is rigidly supported, additional stress is placed on the planetary gear set due to manufacturing tolerances within the gear system that cannot be accommodated by the planetary spider which is attached to the rigidly supported output shaft. Moreover, the wheel hubs have lacked flexibility to change the wheel track center and diameter from application to application without major changes to the design of the wheelend end. 
Furthermore, the bearing retaining nuts have typically been subject to loosening over time. In the prior art, the nuts are secured adjacent to a wheelend end member  splined to the spindle, which places a preload on the bearings. During normal vehicle operation, the splined member rotates back and forth relative to the spindle thereby tending to loosen the nut. A very robust nut locking system is required to prevent this safety related failure mode. 
Therefore, what is needed is a wheelend end that has flexibility in wheel size and mounting flange location, uses a bearing configuration that supports the wheel hub more efficiently, has a bearing retainer that does not loosen over time, a support system that optimizes load share in the planetary gear set, and the ability to mount different brake systems. 